BrendanW 
In my review of the film Passengers, I praised the people who made the trailer for making the film look smart, captivating, sexy and enthralling, most of which was not true about the middling space romance with two solid lead actors. However, after having watched Illumination’s latest offering, Sing, I have to say that the people who made the trailer for the film included virtually every laugh that takes place during its entire runtime. The trailer also gave the sense that this was a full-fledged comedy, of which I could definitely see elements of humour and it was amusing at times but it also had A LOT of heavy drama (more than I expected). This is not a slam on the movie because the people who made the trailer unfortunately did not do that great of a job but it IS an attack on how the producers set up your expectations and then deliver something different.
Sing is basically an ensemble comedy/drama done as an animated feature. We have optimistic koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), who is down on his luck after several failed productions and decides to host: a singing competition. After a clerical error in which his assistant, Mrs. Crawly (Garth Jennings) loses her eyeball one time too many and writes that there will be a $100K prize instead of a $1000 one, the auditions come in at a rapid-fire pace. After a series of failed attempts by some, they get down to the wire with bored housewife/pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon); the son of a criminal/gorilla, Johnny (Taron Egerton); Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a rock star porcupine who eventually gets dumped by her partner/boyfriend (Beck Bennett); Mike (Seth MacFarlane), a Frank Sinatra-esque mouse with a bad attitude; Gunter (Nick Kroll), a bouncy German pig who acts as Rosita’s dance partner; and Meena (Tori Kelly), an elephant who has a problem with nerves but sings like an angel. Together, they work to make the competition a hit and encounter lots of speedbumps on the way.
The plot is jam-packed and I think that goes without saying before you step into this animated film. It also contains a few heavy themes that I wasn’t expecting like infidelity, death of a parent, loveless marriages, gang violence and estranged parents. A few of these have been done before in family films but I felt like a lot of these hit with more impact than you would expect to have. The only problem is that because the plot is thin and there are so many individual stories concerning each character, there isn’t a lot of time to get everyone the proper attention. Plus, we are obviously going to have a big musical finale and that eats up a large portion of time as well. To the film’s credit, they do a better job than you would expect with the limited time and vast amount of characters that they can possibly do and it also just amounts to a healthy dose of fun, which is something I haven’t seen in a movie in a while due to a few of the recent stinkers I’ve seen. I was never bored which is probably the best compliment you can give to an animated film.
Are there any vocal highlights? I think my favourites included: Taron giving a nice soulful performance; Reese Witherspoon nailing the ‘frustrated housewife’ arc; Seth MacFarlane (to no one’s surprise) playing an old-timey crooner and he plays a character so unlikeable but somehow makes him likeable; Nick Kroll doing a funny little accent as the exciteable pig; director Garth Jennings making for an amusing side character with Mrs. Crawly’s odd quirks; the best and the one who leads the whole thing is Matthew McConaughey as Buster. I hardly recognized McConaughey’s voice except for a few moments throughout the film and he really holds the whole thing together. There are a host of others I didn’t even mention when I ran through the plot like John C. Reilly, Jennifer Saunders, Nick Offerman, Peter Serafinowicz, Leslie Jones, Jay Pharoah and Rhea Perlman aka way too many cast members to evaluate each and every one of them.
There are a few high-octane sequences in the film that director Garth Jennings is quite good at staging. In one particularly effective scene, Johnny’s father jumps across the rooftops while being chased by police helicopters and avoiding them all while trying to attain one singular emotional goal (no spoilers here, folks). It works really well because it operates as twofold: a moment of character pathos and a fun scene for the kids to enjoy the action. Another one I liked a great deal was a scene in which Rosita must leave for her rehearsal so she builds a DIY kit that takes care of all her usual morning chores involving her husband and 25 piglets without the necessity of her own presence. Jennings makes the whole thing into a kind of throwback to big burly musicals of the 30s and 40s too and it feels like a loving tribute from someone who genuinely enjoyed them.
The music in the movie is the big selling point and most of those sequences are a lot of fun (especially the grand finale) but also keep in mind that the rest of the film just can’t possibly measure up to them. The main issue with the plot is that a lot of the things that happen are very predictable and everyone winds up pretty much where you expected them to when you were introduced to the characters in the first place. The better stories include the main one involving Buster, Johnny’s relationship with his father, Mike’s run-in with a number of bears and Rosita’s journey from housewife to superstar.
So is it worth seeing? For sure. Just don’t expect the plot to exceed more than you would expect and just enjoy the fun musical numbers and goofy characters.
RATING: *** ½
Rating System:
* (Brutal; the worst rating)
** (Some elements keep it from being awful but still not very good)
*** (Completely watchable; a rental as old-timers might say)
**** (Great film with a few things here and there keeping it from being perfect)
***** (Flawless; a true achievement)
